Pestilence
by Alienfromx
Summary: Team RWBY encounters a species of Grimm that thrives off of the diseased environments it creates.
1. Chapter 1

Pestilence

There's a species of Grimm that resides in a coastal city within the Kingdom of Vale. This city is one of the smaller cities that lack the political or economic clout that the larger city of Vale has. Years of Grimm attacks and emigration have lead it to being a rundown settlement populated by people who dream of leaving one day.

Anybody visiting the city will immediately notice something off about it. It only takes one careless glance to notice that one half of the city is actually populated while the other is completely empty. The reason for this is an unfortunate one.

Many years ago, a Grimm found its home in the city. This is the Grimm known as pestilence. It feeds off of disease, growing in size and lethality with every bit of exposure to diseases present. This all started when a plague passed through the city. It came off the back off the Grimm when it first arrived, resembling a slimy tumor covered in cists. This Grimm breathes through the multiple little holes in its skin, releasing contagious smog of disease. Skilled Huntsmen know to attack this Grimm from a distance with gear that allows them to avoid breathing in its smog. Most ordinary people within the city, however, are not Huntsmen and didn't know better as they carefully observed the repulsive blob when it first showed up.

After a while, people began to cough and experience gut-wrenching pain. This eventually spread to people they knew, and then to a large chunk of the city. A quarantine of the city eventually took place that saw families torn apart and many people dying as they became trapped with the incurable disease. Since then, one half of the city serves as a reminder to the threat of Pestilence. It no longer resembles the slimy little tumor. The Grimm has long since fed off of the disease that it's created and is now much more intimidating.

The Grimm now looks more like a diseased humanoid. It stands at about half the size of a large building and tends to stick itself to the walls of abandoned buildings. Its large head has an entire side that's riddled with holes. Maggots infest these holes, dropping out of them every so often as the Grimm moans as if they give it pain. Large tumors cover its back with bulbous pimples that decorate them like sprinkles. The top of its head is covered with matted hair. Disembodies body parts can be found inside of its hair, most likely from people the Grimm has killed.

The people of the city have a border that's meant to keep them from going anywhere near the city, but those same people also with to be free from the presence of Pestilence.

At this moment, four young Huntresses find themselves approaching the city. None of them know about the city's history and none of them are prepared for what they're about to encounter.


	2. Chapter 2

"Why are we standing around in the middle of nowhere?" asked a Huntress named Yang Xiao Long. She had a voice that was just as boisterous as the Huntress herself.

"Because we're lost," said another Huntress, Blake Belladonna. Unlike Yang, people often had trouble hearing Blake because she spoke so softly.

"Is that true?" asked Ruby Rose, leader of the Huntress team. She looked over at the Huntress next to her with her eyes wide open. "You said you knew where we were going!"

"I did," said Weiss Schnee, fourth member of the Huntress team. She had an air of pretention to her voice that drew people away.

"Big emphasis on _did_ ," Yang shot back. "So we're basically lost."

Ruby gasped. "So we're never going to get back to Beacon? What if Ozpin expels us! I've never been expelled before. What if I get expelled and barred from being near Huntsmen again! Uncle Qrow would-"

"Ruby!" Yang shouted, grabbing her younger sister by the shoulders. "We'll be fine. Weiss just can't be trusted with directions. That's all."

Weiss flared her nostrils so much that it looked like she was trying to inhale all the oxygen surrounding her.

"What?" Yang asked assertively, stepping closer to Weiss. "You said that we'd be there in only five minutes. It's been twenty-five."

Weiss folded her arms. "Impressive,' she said snidely. "I wasn't aware you could count past ten."

"Um….guys?" Blake said softly.

"It's hard to be aware of anything with your head shoved so far up your-"

"GUYS!" Ruby screamed, startling everybody nearby. All eyes were on her now.

Ruby stared at everybody and swallowed. She didn't like having numerous people staring at her.

"Blake has something to say," said Ruby.

Now everybody was eyeing Blake, Ruby included.

Blake had her body facing every from everybody, but turned her head to speak.

"There's a city over there," said Blake, nudging her head in the direction her body had been facing.

The rest of her team looked over and saw what appeared to be buildings in the far off distance.

Weiss blinked a couple times and then cleared her throat.

"Well," said Weiss with newfound confidence. "It looks like my navigational skills were sufficient after all." She walked towards the city with an extremely smug smile that made Yang's face burn dark red.

As team rwby approached the building, various details started to emerge. The buildings looked like they were in pretty awful shape. There were iron bars placed in front of all of them and some of them looked like they'd been ripped apart by something. One of the buildings even had an exposed half because it looked like the other half had been ripped off by bare hands. Whatever caused all this had apparently been devastating.

Team rwby finally stopped in front of a large fence with a single turret inside of it.

"Looks like they want to keep visitors out," said Blake.

Yang eyed the turret with a raised eyebrow. "Am I supposed to be intimidated by that thing?"

Weiss shook her head. "They probably expect us to follow protocol. You know, as most people do."

Ruby stared up at the turret while Yang and Weiss continued bickering. She cocked her head a little at the sight of something looking down at them. It was hard to see because of the shadow obscuring it, but everything about it told Ruby that a person was in there.

Realizing what to do, Ruby took a deep breath before making a statement to whoever stood watch.

"EXCUSE ME!" Ruby shriked. Her voice was so shrill that it nearly made her teammates deaf, and they were standing a fair distance away from her. "WE'RE TEAM RWBY AND WE WANT TO COME IN! WILL YOU LET US? IT'S OKAY IF YOU DON'T! I WAS JUST ASKING!"

"Augh!" Weiss groaned. "I thought my eardrums were going to burst."

A head emerged from the turret. It was a person wearing a helmet. There was also a uniform that covered his entire body, making it hard to identify anything else about him.

"You four are huntresses?" the guard asked.

"Yes," said Ruby. "Well, sort of. We're students at Beacon Academy!"

There was a short pause.

"Did Ozpin send you here?"

Ruby looked back at her teammates. They all shook their heads vigorously.

"Yes," said Ruby. She heard a loud groan from behind.

"Don't know why he bothered sending children instead of one of his own," the guard shrugged. "Just a minute."

"I can't believe he bought that," said Yang.

"Nothing really surprises me all that much anymore," said Blake. "I wonder if that should be something to worry about."

"Say what?"

The gate to the city opened slowly, creating a shrieking sound as the rusty steel rubbed against each other. Ruby looked curiously at the city as more of it began to appear. The place was nearly a ghost town. She couldn't see a single person walking around or doing anything else that you would expect in a city.

Once the gates had finally opened, team rwby took their first steps into the city.

"We'll be expecting you to take care of that thing by the end of this week at most," said the guard.

"What's he talking about?" asked Weiss.

Ruby shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know," she said, "but at least it got us someplace to stay for a while."

Weiss and Yang glance uncomfortably at each other for a moment.

"This place has experienced some difficult times," said Blake, resting on one knee as she observed the dead plants that had tried to grow in between the concrete cracks. "Do you think a Grimm may have passed by here?"

"It's likely," said Weiss. "I'm not sure what else could cause this much damage."

"We'll take care of it if that's what the problem is," said Ruby. "I have faith in all of you."

"Ruby," said Weiss. "That's touching and all, but I don't think we're ready to take on something that could level a city."

Ruby smirked at Weiss and playfully pat her on the shoulder. "You worry too much," said Ruby. "Now let's get inside and find a place to rest. My legs are tired from all that walking."

There was a building right in front of them with a sign that read, "Information Center." At least that's what it would have read if most of the words hadn't fallen off. It was a safe bet that place such as that would let team rwby know about the city some more, which is why none of them objected to Ruby's idea.

The Information Center looked like a place that had once had some sort of prestige. Every wall had been decorated with wallpaper that resembled flower petals in the spring. Expensive carpets with complex designs covered the floors. There were also golden pillars that stood on opposite sides of a large wooden desk. To team rwby's surprise, someone was actually sitting at the desk. Whoever it was didn't appear to notice them.

"Should we say something to that person?" Ruby asked.

"I don't think that person is even awake," said Blake. "Look carefully."

Ruby took another look and saw that the person was hunched over, breathing slowly as they slept.

"We'll I'm going to wake them up," said Yang. "Somebody needs to tell us what the deal with this place is."

She stormed over to the front desk and stood in front of it with both fists on her hips.

"Hey!" Yang shouted. "Wake up!"

The person at the desk jerked their head up and yelled. It turned out the person was a young man. He nearly fell out of his chair from the sight of Yang.

"W-W-W-Who are you?" he asked, shaking in his seat.

"We're team rwby," said Yang proudly, crossing her arms. "We need a place to stay for the night because my friend over there confused north for south."

"Hey!" Weiss shouted.

The man straightened his shirt a little and then spoke.

"You're a Huntress team?" he asked.

Yang nodded.

The man stared at all of us, saying nothing as his eyes scanned us up and down.

"You're lying," he said.

"What?" Yang growled, reaching for his shirt collar.

"W-W-Well what I mean is...you're too young."

"Because we're Beacon students," said Yang.

The man already had a sad look on his face, but hearing those words from Yang made him appear outright depressed.

"Oh," he said glumly. "Years of persisting and this is what we get...students. I guess that's the fate of a failed city."

"What are you talking about?" asked Yang.

"This place was once a decent place to live," said the man. "And then it came."

"The Girmm," said Blake.

The man nodded. "It started off as a disgusting mess, and then it grew into terror. I'm only here because I can't afford to live everywhere else. We'd been sending petitions and calls of help to Beacon and even Atlas, but none of them have responded. I thought for a second that the help we had been waiting for had finally arrived. I guess that was too much to hope for."

Ruby walked beside Yang and put both her hands on the front desk.

"You don't have to worry anymore," said Ruby.

"Ruby," said Weiss. "What are you doing?"

"We're going to help you!" said Ruby. "I want to help people and saving city's just happens to be what you do to help others!"

Yang smiled at Ruby's words.

The man looked up at Ruby with the same defeated expression. "I doubt you stand a chance," he said. "But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a fob that he handed to Ruby. "These are the keys to the staff rooms upstairs. They're still good quality despite everything that happened. Nobody really works here anymore, so you don't have to worry about taking somebody's room."

"What were you doing here if nobody works here?" asked Weiss.

"This place is probably as good as it gets if you want a place to stay," said the man. Isolated, comfy, and away from that thing. This desk is much more comfortable than my bed at home anyway.

With that all said and done, team rwby went upstairs and entered the room. The man had been honest when he said that the rooms were still high quality. They appeared to be the size of a large apartment room and had a total of six beds, plus a large stove and refrigerator. Team rwby could tell that the place was probably quite the place to live years ago.

"I still can't believe you did that," said Weiss. "Do you know what kind of trouble we could be up against? This thing is probably tougher than whatever we've fought at Beacon."

Ruby silently looked at Weiss and smiled.

"You worry too much," she said with a smile. "I wouldn't have convinced myself to do this if I didn't have faith in my team."

Weiss shrugged and plopped herself on a pillow.

Team rwby had a difficult challenge ahead of them. Ruby understood this and also knew that her team was capable of defeating the odds. They would certainly need to do that for the challenge that awaited them.


End file.
